Three's a crowd
by Fiji The Beggar
Summary: The hellmouth shifted to some town in Europe?


Title: "Three's a crowd"  
Category: drama/action/just a little bit of angst Rated: PG-13 Characters: Buffy, Spike, Giles, a cameo by Faith and two special guests for the price of one Continuity: 8th Fiji-verse fic, following 1: Thanks for Coming 2: Empress of Cool 3: Please, Stake Me!  
4: The Interdimentional Bastard 5: There's No Demon Like a Show Demon 6: But I'm Famous!  
7: The vampire drained my homework Summary: The hellmouth shifted to some town in Europe?  
Disclaimer: all hail Joss Note: no, the url isn't real

A woman with bad hair and dirty skin dragged herself into the magic shop.

It took Willow a full 5 seconds before she recognised her "Buffy! Did you get them?"

Buffy ignored her, she swung her bag of weapons on the table and was about to answer when a loud crash averted her to something.

"Where did the table go?"

Anya appeared from behind the counter "I'm replacing it with neat little tables. I'm planning on making this place a magic shop annex coffeebar."

Well, at least there were still chairs to crash in.

Willow sat down next to her "So? Did you get them?"

"No, ... I mean yes ... Well, not really"

Willow tried to cheer Buffy up with a little joke "Good, I'm glad we're clear on that." But Buffy gave her an 'either get me hot water or shoot me on the spot' look.

She exerted herself never the less "Know that 'gang on PCP' I've been chasing for ages?"

"Yes"

"Night AND day."

"Yesyes"

"Finally caught them, know what it was?"

"No"

"A gang on PCP"

"What? What is this place coming to when 'gangs on PCP' turn out to be ... well ... errmm ... gangs on PCP."

"Stupid snot nose kids, gave em a bloody good ass-kicking." Buffy was a bit surprised to hear herself utter Spike's staple word. Willow had the courtesy to not notice.

Will grabbed her laptop from one of the little tables and sat back down next to Buffy. She punched a few keys and declared "That's 18 days without any slayage at all."

Giles came up to them holding the morning paper "And mysterious killings are at an all time low. Look" he showed them the paper "they've got a dancing Chihuahua on the front page."

Buffy looked up at him "Is the Hellmouth broken or something?"

The tiny bells above the door announced another customer. Anya looked up from the inventory to play her little 'guess how much they'll spend' game. It was a girl with bad hair and dirty skin. She'd not be spending much. Slightly miffed, Anya returned to her inventory.

Giles answered Buffies question "Hellmouth energy fluctuates, a bit like a volcano. We've seen dips before, but this is pretty extreme. Maybe it's shifted."

"Shifted?"

"Yes, there's always one Hellmouth active. Maybe our Hellmouth has become dormant. But I doubt it. The watchers monitor all the Hellmouths and I haven't heard about any becoming active."

"You still talk to the watchers?"

Giles felt an insuppressable urge to remove a tiny smudge from his glasses. He nodded to Willow who took the cue.

"I've written a little perl script," she called it up on her laptop, Buffy pretended to know the difference between it and the random typings of a two year old who had discovered an unattended computer "accesses the watcher's diary" she indicated an URL, http/11.7.0.7:4242/. That at least, Buffy recognised. Willow continued "That's a forum for watchers all over the world."

Giles was done removing the offending smudge and continued the explanation "I give her keywords, and she filters the forum for it."

"It's really neat!" Willow insisted.

Anya was now seriously annoyed with the raggedly girl. She wasn't even pretending to be checking out the merchandise, the gall! She took a moment to compose herself, decided on a role she'd play, the annoyingly cheerful salesperson and approached the intruder. "Hello, are you looking for anything in particular?" a huge smile followed.

The girl backed away some, she eyed Anya suspiciously "I-Is there a Buffy Summers here? I was told she'd be here." her eyes shifted left and right as she spoke.

Anya judged her age to be no more then 14, must be from Dawn's school "You mean Dawn Summers. She's not here right now." She noticed the girl wasn't leaving.

The kid dug a small crumpled piece of paper out of her pocked, Anya couldn't help but notice there was no wallet in there. She studied the piece of paper a bit, then said "No, it's Buffy Summers I want. Is she here? I really need to talk to her."

Since tears seemed to be close by, Anya found it prudent to dump her on Buffy "I'll go get her."

A minute or so later, Buffy, now armed with a plastic cup of cold water, approached the girl. 'I'll deal with this, whatever it is, and then it's of to the shower and BED!' she said to herself.

"Hi"

The girl didn't speak up, beyond a timid "Hi".

"I'm Buffy, you wanted to see me?"

For the first time since she entered the shop, a hint of a smile played across her face. It was as if a million tons of weight just fell of her shoulders. "I'm Karen. Karen the vampire slayer."

The plastic cup fell to the ground. All Buffy could say was "Faith."

---

Spike sat on the concrete coffin. He studied the contents of the cup that proclaimed he was 'dead and loving it'. He said "So, someone finally did in psycho slayer."

"Looks like it."

"She hated you."

"Yep"

"And you hated her."

"That about sums up the be all and end all of our relationship."

"So why the doom? She's dead! Hurray!" Spike said.

"I don't know ... because she's ... because she WAS a slayer I suppose. Wasn't like she was still evil and all. And I didn't really hate-hate her, I just preferred her not near me or near Angel or anyone else I care about." She stopped drawing circles in the dirt on the floor and looked up at Spike "Guess it all reminded me that some day, someone will ..."

"NO!" Spike jumped to his feet "No one will! Not some day, not ever! Anyone so much as looks at you cross-eyed and I fucking rip their ..." he searched for something suitably gruesome and painful "their bloody kidneys out! And ... and shove them done their throat while it's still beating!"

Buffy smiled at him "Kidneys don't beat."

"Oh Right. Well, it'll hurt, I can promise you that." Satisfied with his assurance of random violence and destruction, he settled back down with his cup.

Buffy frowned a bit "That's it I think. That's why I hate her being dead. She's part of the good guy's family. Sure, she's a distant relative, like auntie Faith. Crazy aunt Faith who lived up in ..." something remote, some small backwater "Vancouver and raised albino ferrets. But now auntie Faith's dead and I won't get anymore two word greeting cards from her at Christmas and all her ferrets will starve and die."

"Slayer ... sometimes you weird me out more then Dru ever did."

"Wow, I'm weirder then Dru, the deranged raving mad vampire, gee, thanks." Buffy said with mock indignation.

Spike didn't get any further explore Buffies weirdness as Giles entered the crypt, without knocking no less!

Buffy abandoned herself to the inevitable "So, what did the council say?"

Giles looked for a convenient place to lean against but the only spot was right next to Spike. He preferred to stand. "Faith was approached some time after she came here. They tried to get her to accept another watcher but she refused ... quite vehemently apparently."

"That's our girl," Buffy said.

"Yes, quite. She was last seen in Detroit, still fighting the good fight. And then one day, Karen goes to school. She's pestered by the class bully and gives him a little shove."

"And he lands in front of a bus 30 feet away and dies in a sickening shower of blood and brainmatter," Spike added.

"No! Well, he did end up up-side-down in the bicycle shed."

Buffy already knew the answer but she felt like asking anyway "So, she's the real item?"

Giles just nodded.

"Where's her watcher?"

"You probably noticed how young Karen is ... The council only identified her as a slayer-in-waiting 5 months ago. She's only had a watcher for some 90 days before she was called."

"Aaaaand" Buffy urged.

"Steady on Slayer, give gramps time to breathe, we don't want him to have a stroke." Spike grinned at Giles.

"Why, thank you Spike, how thoughtful of you," Giles said in his most annoyed tone. Then he continued "It seems that Karen's watcher got a bit carried away ... had her attack a whole nest in her first week."

Buffy kept watching Giles, but she no longer saw him. She was seeing images from her first weeks as a slayer. Back in the days when vampires were still scary, when being out at night in a cemetery could still give her goosebumps. Karen would have been terrified, going against a whole nest so soon, not just by the vampires and the darkness but by her own powers, by her own body. Her body that had altered so fast in so little time, literally over night. She would have had questions. Why? How? and most of all: Why me? and is this still me? As she beheld her own watcher, her very unorthodox watcher, explain things, she wondered if regular watchers had any benefit at all. If slayers wouldn't be better off without watchers all together.

She snapped out of her musings when Giles said "Well, so much for the bad news, now the worse news."

"Oh God," She groaned "There's more?"

"Fraid so. You remember, earlier, you asked if the Hellmouth was broken ..."

"I broke the Hellmouth? Oopsie." feeling the need to let of some steam, she turned to Spike "Think it's still under warranty?"

Spike had a bit of a chuckle.

"Well, there's no need since we can turn it in and get a brand new one," Giles said. He instantly realised how very un-him that sounded and added, "Did I just say that?"

Buffy quipped "No, it was your evil twin, who is also called Rupert."

Giles had a hurt look in his eyes.

Buffy quickly blurted "B-But we love you, right Spike?"

Spike produced a mocking laugh, so Buffy violently kicked his shin "Ow! Bloody hell woman!"

Buffy got ready to kick him again, so Spike capitulated "Yes, Rupert, I love you so much it hurts me" adding another "Bloody hell" in a lower voice.

Giles rolled his eyes and said "Dear God." He regained his composure somewhat "If you're quite done ..."

Buffy crossed her heart, Spike made a staking motion towards his.

"Alright, on then. The Hellmouth in Antwerp seems to be opening, and the council has requested that we, as Hellmouth specialists, investigate."

Buffy piped up "Requested, my ass." Which prompted Spike to check out her ass.

"Well, they did say please," Giles said "I think it would be best if the two of us went to Antwerp and ..."

Spike stood in front of Giles all of a sudden "No! I'm not gonna let Buffy wander on over to a new Hellmouth with only Rupert the librarian to watch her back. Not with a slayer killer who is not me on the loose."

"Fine! Come along then."

Buffy asked, "What do we do about Karen? Send her back to her parents?"

"That would be the thing to do, except, the council won't have a new watcher ready for at least two weeks and we can't risk sending her back without backup."

Buffy shrugged "We could take her along, maybe?"

Giles ponder things before reaching his decision "Right, we'll do that, the four of us will go and investigate the new Hellmouth."

Buffy packed up some stuff and headed for the door with Giles right behind her. Spike stopped them "Did you say Antwerp?"

Giles answered "Yes, why?"

"As in Antwerp-Belgium-Europe?"

"Yesyes, that's generally where one would find Antwerp," Giles said a bit agitated now.

"How will I get there?"

Buffy and Giles just stared at eachother.

"Not like I can just pull out a fake drivers licence, not the way they're checking things now."

"Oops" Buffy said.

---

It had taken some doing, but here they were. Buffy and Karen were waiting by the coffin for Giles to return with the cargo handlers. Buffy checked around her, no one was too close, no one seemed to be paying attention to them. She violently pounded all over the side of the coffin.

From the inside came a muffled thud, followed by an equally muffled "Bloody hell, woman!"

"Comfy in there Spiky? Or should I say late mister Willy Vandersteen" she winked at Karen who was way to freaked out by the notion of a vampire as an ally to find any of this even remotely funny.

"How did you pick that name anyway?"

"Giles picked it, was the first Belgian sounding name he came across."

"Look, can you get me some more batteries? These are running low."

"Sure, I'll just pop open this coffin in the middle of a very busy airport and dump some batteries in there. That will SO not look weird."

"Oh, shut up!"

"Spike, Shut up!"

"No, you ..."

Buffy interrupted him and half whispered "I mean it, Giles is back and he's brought half the airport staff with him!"

Her elation at Spike's compliance quickly drained away. Several of the people accompanying Giles wore baseball caps that said 'security' on them. Her first reaction was 'quick, hide the coffin', but since coffins have a tendency to be rather unwieldy she'd have to go for plan B.

"Summers, Buffy?" said the most overweight one, apparently the chief of this little warparty.

"Yes?" she said cautiously.

"And this is Willy Vandersteen?" the chief said, laying his hand on the coffin.

"Yes!" she practically shouted. Restrain yourself, she thought, look sombre, dear Willy just died! "Yes, this is my dear cousin Willy."

"And why is cousin Willy being shipped to ..." he checked the cargo sheet "Belgium, of all places?"

Buffy pressed her lips into pouty mode, the closest she could get to sad mode. "He was born there. He said in his will that he wanted to be buried there."

"Riiiiight, So, tell me, how did poor Willy meet his end?"

Buffy hesitated, damn they had rehearsed this ... what was it?

Giles noticed the hesitation and tried to make the save, but he made things worse. He said "He drowned, poor fellow." Just when Buffy decided he "was hit by a truck."

"So so, hit by a truck and drowned. Poor Willy had some lousy luck."

Buffy tried "The truck knocked him of a bridge and into the water!"

"Know what I think?" the man said, leaning on the coffin "I think Willy's not in here at all. In fact, I bet there never was a cousin Willy to begin with."

Buffy cheered up a bit "Well, let's check." She reached for the locks and flipped them open.

Several of the security guards reached for their guns. "Slowly now, miss" one of them said.

Buffy, acting overly careful, slowly opened the lid, quietly thanking her lucky stars that there was no direct sunlight here.

"See," she smiled "Cousin Willy." She presented him as if he were a prize on a gameshow.

The chief took off his cap and rubbed his bald head. "Why does he have a discman in there with him?"

Giles stepped forward "Willy so dearly loved ..."

"The sex pistols!" the chief shouted, "Who on Earth listens to that crap! I hear only gays listen to the sex pistols!"

Buffy glanced into the coffin and looked straight into Spike's open eyes. She could see the murderous intent in them. His hands were shaking in anger. She quickly tossed the discman back inside and slammed the lid shut. A nervous smile on her face, she said, "There, now you've seen cousin Willy. Will that be all?"

The chief stared blankly for a while, trying to make sense of the whole scene. In the end he decided that a pitcher of beer after his shift would solve much of what happened here. He nodded to the cargo handlers who proceeded to prepare the coffin for transport. As he walked away, Buffy could here him say "Of all the fucked-up hairbrained ..."

---

For what seemed the one-hundredth time Spike spat out a series of 'buggers' and 'bleedings'. Giles could take no more "Spike, you're a corpse. A relatively active one, but a corpse never the less. One would think you could handle an hour or two in a coffin."

"Say what? I was stuck in that bloody box for a good 8 hours, with batteries for only two hours or so. Every single of my muscles aches as if Buffy had her way ..."

"I'm very sure I'll one day die happy, never having heard the remainder of that sentence"

Buffy came out of the bathroom with a towel around her neck "Ooooookay, testosterone boys, that's quite enough of the immaturity for now." "They been like this long?" She directed at Karen.

Perched on the back of a chair, Karen just shrugged. She hopped off her chair and darted into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

Spike gestured at Giles and said "He started it."

Buffy patted him on the cheek "Yes, very mature" and brushed right past him. "Giles, what's the plan?"

"Well, the local watcher isn't answering his phone. So I think I should go and look him up." Giles gestured Buffy to come to the commode, he spread out a map of the city "As for you," he pointed to a green patch on the map "This is the city cemetery. I thought you could take Karen there and maybe get in a slaying or two."

"Grand, I could do with a bit of carnage." Spike hopped off the bed.

"Not you, just Buffy and Karen."

"What? I'm not going with the old fart to meet the ... other ... old fart."

"He's 32"

"Ok, I apologise."

"Good"

"You're the only old fart 'round here."

Giles made a lost gesture and sighed at Buffy.

Buffy turned to Spike, stuck her finger in the air and said "Bad Spike!"

"Oh come on, why can't I go out and kill stuff?"

"Because, dear Spike, Karen was chased across half a continent by vampires less then a week ago. I don't want her to be around you to much for the moment." Giles said.

"Bugger that," Spike said as he reached for a fag.

"Spiiiiiike," Buffy said, hands on hips.

"What? Dawn's on the other side of the bleeding ocean!"

"But Karen isn't."

"Bloody hell!"

---

Making her way through the headstones, Buffy noticed the only talking going on was hers. She had tried every subject: fashion, music, vampire trivia, even ... gha ... boys bands but all it had done was prove that Karen could easily break Oz's record of monosyllabicy. Right, one more change of subject and that's it. "Karen, you do know that you can call your parents any time you feel like it. The council will pay for it anyway."

"Umhuh"

"Umhuh isn't a word."

Karen shrugged and said, starting her sentence with a sigh, "I called em before we left."

"You did?" Oh well, at least she constructed a whole sentence this time.  
"Friends and family are very important, I know the watchers frown upon it but you really need friends and family. If you could get your parents in..."

"Buffy?"

Parents equal touchy subject? "Yes?"

"Shouldn't we keep quiet? I - I mean if we're gonna stalk vampires and all."

"No, you see that's the nice thing about slayers being girls, we don't need bait, we ARE bait."

Karen nodded.

"If you are going to attack a nest, then, sure, keep quiet, but in this set up, talk is good."

"OK"

Buffy waited for a second or two, hoping that Karen would take the cue, but no such luck. Hang on, luck was changing.  
"Look Karen, what's wrong with this picture?" She nodded in the direction of some people standing about.

Karen blinked a couple of times "It's way late to be visiting graves?"

"Kind of, but that's not the problem. One of them's a Vampire."

"Which one?"

"Well, see those 3 standing together? If one of them were a vampire the other two would be wondering what he was doing at that grave."

"Still leaves two loners."

"Sure, but check them out, what can you tell?"

"They both have last years fashion sense?"

"No ... Yes ... That's not the issue." Buffy replayed that last part in her mind "I'm not being very clear, am I?"

"Clear as a muddy puddle on a foggy night."

"Ok, see the one on the left? What's he doing?"

"I donno, praying?"

"Correct, so he isn't the vampire."

"Vampires can't pray?"

Buffy didn't answer, she waited for Karen to have her breakthrough.

Karen gasped "I know! The other one's way to agitated! He's constantly shifting, looking about. He's not here to visit any graves!"

Buffy just smiled, so this was why Giles trained her, the fuzzy feeling when your charge learns something.

"Come on, let's go slay him" Buffy took a few steps. She wanted to tell Karen something but found her standing some distance back. She cautiously made her way back "Karen ... I'm not some stupid stuffy watcher ... I'm a slayer ... like you. I'll protect you, I promise."

Karen crossed her arms across her chest and looked away.

"I know you can take him. I happen to know only the pathetic ones look for food in a cemetery."

"Yay," Karen said in a mock voice "I'm Karen, the pathetic vampire slayer."

Buffy held her by the shoulders "Hey, we all have to start some place. Did you think I killed a god on my first night out? No slayer can do it all straight away." Except Faith, Buffy thought, Faith was the best of us all, she kicked all kinds of ass from the word go. Their little run-in with Kakistos stayed conveniently buried in the back of her mind. And Faith got killed in the end, and here she was telling ... no, lying to Karen that she'd be ok. In the end slayers are never ok, slayers never get to live happily ever after. But she couldn't tell Karen that, not now. It would destroy her. Buffy felt like she'd been gut punched.

"Buffy?"

Snap out of it woman! "Yes, vampire, right. Why don't you walk among those trees? I'm pretty sure he'll make a move."

"Okaaaay" Karen said, absolutely not convinced of the validity of the plan. She took a few steps then she spun around, a question burning in her eyes.

Buffy reassured her "Don't worry, I'm right behind you."

Karen walked away. Buffy pretended to be praying at a grave. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the vampire move off, after Karen. When she was sure she was no longer in his field of vision, she went to prey on the predator. By the time she turned the corner, Karen and the vampire were already at it. Buffy felt a sting in her gut when Karen went down. But the young slayer rolled on her stomach and pushed up with all her strength, catching the vamp in the face with the top of her head. 'Nice move,' Buffy thought 'Now grab your stake Karen.'

But here, her inexperience showed, Karen just attacked with a kick to the ribcage.

The vamp soon recovered, Karen had a hell of a time staying away from his fangs.

Buffy waited for the right moment, then she rushed up the vamp and pocked him in the eyes.  
"Don't be afraid to cheat." She told Karen as she handed her a stake.

Karen studied the half-blinded vamp, shrugged, said "OK" and then she kicked him in the nuts.  
With a beautiful pirouette that would have caused a professional ballet dancer to go green with envy, she planted the stake.  
Even before the cloud formerly known as a vampire settled, Karen was giggling.

Buffy was glad to see Karen display a positive emotion for once ... if you can call elation over the destruction of a living ... well mostly living, creature positive. But hey, vampire plus stake equals good.

Karen rushed up to Buffy, huge smile on her face "Waw Buffy, that was ..."

"Great?" Buffy suggested.

Karen nodded so vigorously that Buffy thought her head would come off "Yeaheah!"

She stormed off, stopped and skipped back. Her arms flailed about wildly in a circular motion "I need ... I need ..."

She started making various unrelated motions with her hands.

"You need ... " Buffy frowned "a volleyball tournament for people with weird hair?"

"NO! ... I need ..."

Please don't say 'boys', Buffy thought.

"Ice cream!" Karen screamed in an explosion of teen. Instantly, she withdrew into herself and murmured while biting her fingernails "Think they know about ice cream over here?"

"I'm sure the natives have heard about it. And ..." Buffy pulled a stack of Euros out of her pocket "the council is paying!"

"They gave us money for ice cream?"

"Yeah, well, not really exactly ... but they did say it was for essential slayer supplies."

"Can't get more essential then ice cream?" Karen said, holding her hands together as if praying.

"Nope, ice cream ... pretty essential. Come on girl," Buffy presented her arm "let's go slay some straciatella".

Karen hooked her arm under Buffy's and the two slayers were off in search of frozen yummyness.

---

"This the place?" Spike said, crushing the butt of his fourth cigarette ... now that Buffy the smoke-nazi wasn't around, he was making up for lost puffing.

Giles just said, "Yes" and knocked.

They waited for a couple of seconds. Then Giles asked "Hear anything?"

"There's a catchy tune playing on the radio three doors down," Spike said, nodding in the direction of the noise.

"Other then that?"

"Nope, quite as any tomb other then mine."

Giles shook his head. He pulled some oddly shaped metal objects from his pocket. The lock surrendered soon enough.

"Rupert, you're a man of many talents ... some of them useful."

Giles shot him a look.

Spike ignored it and asked "This watcher fellow, he live here?"

"I would assume so."

"Well, I'll be right here then."

Giles surveyed the scene. Either this was the most disorganised watcher in history or someone had been riffling through his stuff. Some drawers of the desk were still closed, he figured this was as good a place to start as any. After a few minutes, Spike called out to him.

"You sure he lives here?"

Giles kept looking through papers "Yesyes, I'm quite sure."

"Well, he's dead then ain't he."

Giles snapped his head round to seen Spike standing in the middle of the living room, lighting up fag number five. He closed his eyes. "Another one bites the dust, indeed" he muttered as he returned to the task at hand.

The night was getting old when Giles finally decided to call it quits. Holding a depressingly small stack of papers that hinted that there might once have been possible clues in this apartment, he walked over to the blond vampire settled firmly in the couch, surrounded by a mountain of paper.

"Anything?" Giles sighed, rubbing his tired eyes.

Spike dug himself out of mount papercut and declared "Nothing! ... Unless you're into ..." He reached for a bundle and read out the title "The homosexual tendencies in vampires, a case study."

Giles shook his head, "The things they accept as a thesis these days ..."

"And it's not even a good one" Spike said, flicking through the pages "Not one word about Angel!"

Giles was way to tired to stand up for Angel's sexual integrity, besides he didn't care either way.

Spike put his coat on. He reached for a pile, stopped himself and picked up a different pile. He handed it to Giles "This is the maybe pile."

Giles blinked. He nodded at the other one "What's that one then?"

"The not in a million years pile" Spike answered as he headed for the door.

Giles rubbed his temple. "I wonder if the locals have invented ale yet."

"I'm sure they've heard about it," Spike called out "fancy a pint?"

"Oh God yes! Let's do that ... on one of those terraces if possible."

"Why terraces?"

"Sun's coming up in half an hour."

"Ooooooh you're nasty."

"Shut up"

"Does Buffy know you have a mean streak?"

"Bugger off"

"Hey! That's my line!"

---

"I don't like any of this" Spike's word echoed of the bare brick walls.

"Thought you liked dark and dank sewers" Buffy replied.

"Catacombs"

Buffy looked at him funny.

"These are catacombs, not sewers."

"Same diff, what's not to like?"

"We find a whole lot of nothing in those papers we brought back and then boom, one big hunking clue. I'm telling you slayer ... it's not right. There might as well have been a huge cross on a map saying 'here be trap, please enter'."

"So, why are we here?"

Spike shrugged "'cause it's the only bloody clue we have?"

"So, here we are, in the Antwerp se... catacombs ... what modern city has catacombs? I mean ... catacombs why would ..."

Spike stopped her, frowning a bit.

"What?" Buffy whispered.

"I smell ... gas," he smiled at Buffy making with the big eyes "relax luv, it's just a tiny bit. Almost like ... those torch thingies you'd find in a lab."

"Bunsen burners?"

Spike just nodded, he set off in a new direction. Buffy followed him at some distance. After turning a few corners Spike stopped. He pointed to the next corner. They both peered into the next room. An underground lab and back there, in a labcoat ...

Buffy stepped into the room and exclaimed, "Well, well, when did you get out ... Ethan?"

Ethan looked up. His mouth fell open as he dropped the flask he was holding "Oh bugger! I didn't even get to gloat this time."

"Is EVERYONE stealing my lines?" Spike said as he joined Buffy.

Upon seeing not one but two superpowerful people intent on kicking his ass he settled into his default reaction ... to run.

"I HATE it when they run!" Buffy said before giving chase.

Ethan knew these corridors well, he ducked left and right into doorways you could have easily missed. They lost him a couple of times but his wheezing breath was easy to track.

At one point Buffy dove through some heavy curtains and found herself in a chamber filled with people seated at wooden benches. Ethan was at the other end of the chamber pushing a waiter out of the way. Spike now also burst through the curtains "A bar? An underground bar? For humans!" he said.  
But Buffy was already off after Ethan. There was another chamber full of people and then another one. Some guy dressed as a wizard tried to tackle Ethan, to no avail. Spike was first to exit the pub and he saw something very agreeable. Ethan was in a long tunnel with no side exits. The fugitive looked back and let out a girlie yelp. Spike grinned, just a few more feet and ... Just as he reached for Ethan, the warlock ran into a new chamber and Spike crashed into a barrier.

"Ow! Bloody Hell! Someone lives down here?"

"Spike! Are you ok?"

But the vampire was getting up already.

Buffy entered the chamber. Sure enough, there was someone living down here. She smelled him before she saw him. An old man in a coat that predated the Second World War lay in a corner with a bottle of Jack for company. Buffy made her way through what she assumed to be the man's furniture. He cowered as far into the corner as he could, clutching his bottle tightly.

"Invite him in!" Buffy shouted, pointing at Spike.

The man bawled "ik verstennekik oe ni zenne schat."

Buffy hesitated, her Dutch vocabulary contained exactly two words and she doubted that she could construct a meaningful sentence using only 'whipped cream' and 'spoon'.

"Buffy!" Spike shouted "Forget it! He's getting away!"

Buffy gave him one last look.

He said, "Go on, I'll figure out a way around this place."

And the slayer ducked into the next tunnel.

Spike slammed against the barrier in rage. "Invite me in!" he screamed at the transient.

The man reached for an empty can and threw it at Spike.

Snarling he turned from the barrier. There had to be another route!

Buffy was chasing Ethan again. Her target was beginning to show the telltale sings of a man out of breath. One last sprint and she'd have him.

Ethan ran ... well, staggered to be more precise, into yet another room, Buffy right on his tail. She wanted to tackle him but out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. She instinctively dropped to the floor. Barely a second later a dart flew over her head.

Several men, all armed, all aiming at her. Buffy threw herself at the nearest one, knowing full well that there was no way she could take them all. And to make things worse, these were humans, so she had to be careful not to accidentally kill any of them. Number one was down for the count. She ran at the wall, jumped against it and summersaulted backwards through the room, landing on her next victim. This one evaded her initial blow and she knew it would take too long to put him out. When she hit him in the chin, she felt a sting in her calf. She yanked out the dart and took two steps towards the next guy. Then she crashed to the floor.

The survivors of the battle started to strap Buffy to a stretcher. In the next room a man walked up to Ethan.

Ethan gasped "Next ... time ..." he swallowed hard "YOU ... run from ... the slayer."

"I'm sorry Mr Rayne, but living enemies of the slayer are in short supply."

Ethan tried to reply but he was too much out of breath. He took a few deep breaths and said "And thus ... valuable". He dug a piece of paper out of his coat pocket.

The man took it.

"Here you go Mr. Spencer, my bill," Ethan said "Everything's there, in detail".

"185,550 Euros!"

"What? No, that's not right." Ethan clawed his way up and verified the bill. "Ah, here it is," he said, pointing at the bottom.

"185,550 Pounds Sterling!"

"Hey, that's not all profit," Ethan took the bill and turned it around "Here's a detailed list of supplies."

"250 gallons of human blood?"

"To keep the Sunnydale vampires happy."

"5 tons of fermented goat's bile?"

"You wouldn't believe what some of those demons enjoy."

"'s still a lot of money."

"Do you have ANY idea how many favours I've had to call in to keep the Hellmouth quite for three weeks? Well, most of them worked along nicely once I told them I'd get rid of the Slayer."

Back to the list "OK, I'm rather sure there is not one demon out there that likes 12 pounds of oregano grown on the equator."

"You'd be right, that was needed to make this Hellmouth twitch a little."

"Fine, We'll transfer the money to your account," he handed the bill to an underling then he turned back to Ethan "I want you out of the country in 48 hours."

"Sure, no problem, hey, abducting the slayer ... I don't want the bloody watchers after me."

Spencer straightened his back and said "Mr. Rayne, we ARE the bloody watchers."

---

"Are you SURE there are demons here?" Karen asked, peering into yet another alcove. They'd been in the castle's cellar for ages now.

"This book claims there are," Giles handed the slayer a paperback.

The cracked cover showed a mommy-demon (at least she assumed it was a mommy-demon, could have been a daddy-demon, hard to tell really) nibbling at a decapitated body while her spawn was playing footy with the head. 'Places to be in Antwerp for Hellspawn and Vampires alike' it said in a large evil font. Yes, this font was definitely evil.

"Well, it was printed in '84, so might be a tiny bit out of date." Giles looked around, there really wasn't anything at all that indicated demon activity, except for that painting in the corner maybe, but that might be modern art. "Come on, let's get out of here." He got into position to give Karen a leg-up to the trap door above but Karen just used her slayer strength to jump straight through it.

Giles tried to grab the edges. After some failed attempts he called out "Karen, give us a hand will you?"

Karen pulled him up but half way through she let go. With a shriek she cowered back two feet.

"Bloody ... Why did you do that?" Giles spat out, barely hanging on.

"Th ... th ... There's a s-s-s-" she pointed to Giles's head.

"A what? A ... a ... a soulsucker? A spirit? WHAT?"

"No ..." she moaned "a ... a spider!"

"Good God" Giles muttered "Well get it off then."

"No!"

"Karen ... you're the slayer for crying out loud."

"That's no demon ... That's a spider! And it's huge!"

"Just pretend it's a demon spider and GET! IT! OFF!"

She reached for the hairy thing but stopped "It's looking at me."

"See, that's demonic, no regular spider would do that."

Her hand still frozen in place, she said, "You're making this up."

"Tell you what, let's wait until it has bitten me and I've died and become green and bloated and it's laid it's eggs in my skull, shall we?"

"Ow, all right," she said.

Karen carefully reached for the arachnid "Ow, aw, ick, ay, oy, ow, ow, ..." The instant her fingers touched the beast, she started wildly flailing about her hand.

A tiny spider, barely the size of one of those silly one eurocent coins landed on the floor in front of Giles. The poor thing scuttered off in search of a safe nook to invade.

"I thought you said it was huge," Giles said as he clawed his way through the hatch.

The corners of Karen's mouth curved down "It looked bigger sitting there." She sheepishly looked up at Giles "Mad at me?"

Giles wondered if teenage girls secretly took classes in puppy-dog eyeing. "'Course not" he answered, while vigorously cleaning his glasses to avoid her gaze.

Karen did a little jump "yay!" and hugged Giles, nearly crushing his glasses. Then she headed for the exit.

Giles followed her, muttering "I'm getting to old for this, I'm resigning, I mean it, I'm resigning and I'm going to do something relatively safe, like ... shark fishing ... or ... or bull riding." Preoccupied as he was, he only noticed something was wrong when the baseballbat came swinging towards him. He ducked, screaming a warning to Karen. The bat missed. Giles elbowed the owner. As the man went down, Giles snatched up the bat and smacked the next guy over the head with it. He tried to survey the scene. Five more attackers, at least. He threw the bat at one of them. The guy caught the bat instinctively, giving Giles an opening to kick him in the stomach. The next man knew martial arts. Giles recognised the technique. He managed to avoid every blow, but it cost him ground. Soon he was backed up to a wall. This was going to hurt. He rushed forward catching a blow to the side of the head. His head rung but now he had the Bruce Lee wannabe in a bearhug. With all his might he squeezed. A blow to the head and Giles went down like a ton of bricks. Spots were dancing in front of his eyes. Another blow, to the back this time. Through the haze he saw Karen backhand a man, while kicking another. Someone sprayed her face with something. She screamed, clutching her face. Two men were now pounding on Giles. He saw Karen one last time before the lights went out. The girl had collapsed. Barely conscious, he could hear someone say "Leave him, he's human." The last thing passing through his mind was "That's odd, an English accent."

---

Sound, it's not much, but it's something. Murmurs ... voices? What are they saying? Can't tell. Metallic clangs ... like a spoon on a plate maybe? No, different, metal on metal. Can't move, arms and legs are numb. Can I see? Buffy cringed as her tired eyes looked straight into a brilliant light.

"She's waking up!" someone screamed as if it meant the end of the world itself.

"Then give her some more." a firm voice answered.

"So close to the procedure?" the first voice said.

"Trust me she won't want to be awake for this."

For what 'this'? What is 'this'?

Buffy had the presence of mind to turn her head sideways. Finally free of the light, she saw herself lying on an operating table, surrounded by tons of equipment and people in surgical garb. An operating room with a wall-sized mirror? Then she recognised Karen. This was a window. What were they doing to Karen? ... Scratch that, what were they doing to her? But before she could turn her head the other way, darkness overtook her again. She was back to sound only and after a few seconds, that too was gone.

---

An older man, somewhat balding, followed the activity in the OR right in front of him. On one of the monitors, a spike appeared where there had been a line before. As if it were his own heart that monitor was reading he gasped for air. A sudden faintness forced him to seek support from the glass.

"Come on Dr.Anderson. This isn't the first time we do this." Spencer said to the fragile figure next to him.

That comment got him angry enough to stand unaided again "But it IS the first time we do two at once. We're pushing things, Thomas. We don't have the staff to keep doing this."

"Worry not my friend, Once the rest of the watchers realise what's going, you'll have tons of new recruits to pick from."

"I don't know. This goes against every..."

"Oh, pull yourself together man! Don't give me that crap again. Slayers predate the Hippocratic oath, it doesn't apply to them!"

Dr.Anderson involuntarily took a step back.

"Look, it's very simple, I bring in the slayers. All you have to do is kill them some."

"I hope you're right."

"I am." Spencer clapped his hands together "Now! Let's get Karen off to reeducation."

Dr.Anderson nodded and started to walk away, grateful to be away from Spencer. Then Spencer called after him "And restock OR 2, I want to do Faith again before we lock up for the night."

Dr.Anderson cringed inwardly. Don't you see that you're killing her! he wanted to scream. But part of him kept saying 'We must do this. It is good. We must do this. It is good.'

The slayers involved might disagree.

---

"Giles!" one pissed off vampire screamed as he burst into the hotelroom. His head snapped left and right. He located the target of his rage but first he drew the curtains, denying the early morning sun dominion over this room. "Have you seen Buffy!" the screaming continued.

The watcher stayed silent, further enraging the vampire.

Spike marched over to the bed and lifted Giles up like he was a puppet and got a shock from the chip ... a broken puppet by the looks of it. Spike looked into the mess of dried blood, cuts and bruises. Was this the man he was looking for?

Giles feebly raised his hand to avert further mistreatment.

Spike looked with disgust at the work party or parties unknown had done to Buffy's watcher. This wasn't half as funny when it happened to someone you still needed. He lit up a fag while he said, "You're supposed to jump aside when there's a herd of gorillas coming through". He paused a moment to ask himself if gorillas came in herds.

With some difficulty Giles managed to say "were attacked ... Karen was caught" and without missing a beat he added "where's Buffy?"

Spike decided on the shortshort version "found Ethan, he ran, we followed, bumped into barrier, lost Buffy"

Giles started to shout "You let her ..." but the pounding in his skull convinced him to continue in a lower tone "you let her go on, alone?"

"Hello? Barrier! Not much I can do about that!"

Giles's tired mind finally managed to process the input "It was a trap."

Spike crashed into one of the chairs "That, I know." He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands. They needed to go looking for Buffy but Giles wouldn't be good for much. Plus, the sun was now up and he was pretty sure the hotel didn't come with a handy entrance to sewers or catacombs or a subway. He needed to plan his actions. What did he have? Not much, just one half dead librarian. Well, if Giles died, he at least had a nice supply of blood but, no, there was plenty of blood in the fridge. Might as well get a doctor then.

---

It was late afternoon before Giles awoke from his drug-induced slumber. Spike was looking out the window, glad that the room only had windows facing east. He had learned the city map by heart and was now matching landmarks to what he had learned.

Giles dragged himself up to the window and joined Spike in seizing up the city. "That's one big city."

Spike just nodded.

"Will take us ages to find anything."

"We'll split up." Spike said dryly.

"How will we keep in touch?"

Giles's words were barely out of his mouth when Spike held a cellphone in front of him. "Had them delivered. My number's programmed in there." Spike looked at the watcher. He looked a lot better with all the blood washed off but he was still a sorry sight. "Look, maybe it's better if I go out on my own."

Giles got a weird look on his face.

"No, I don't give a shit. It's just, if they grab you, Buffy will demand to go rescue you." and for the first time in a day or so, a hint of a smile crept across his face.

"Oh, good, for a moment there I thought you were going soft in the head."

Spike chuckled. These humans, these fragile humans, thump em in the face a bit and they go down. Pathetic! Not like vampires ... or slayers ... or any of a hundred demons and fiends and whatnot. Makes you wonder why they even try, why they even try to save their miserable little lives. Yes, why DO they try? This old man with his weak body, he had been thrashed, yet here he was, barely a day later, up and about, eager to go save a creature a million times more powerful then him. A creature who's mere existence diminished his. Why? He's not related to the slayer, he's not shagging her, she shouldn't be anything to him, yet ... Well, at least Spike had no such problems. He only cared about Buffy ... and Dawn. But that's part of a promise to Buffy, so that doesn't count ... and William ... but that's ... he's ... that doesn't count because .  
Buggering Hell! That train of thought ended up in one bloody big derailment!

"Sun's down" Giles's words pulled Spike back to reality.

"Right then" Spike pulled the window open and dove out, grabbing his coat on the way out.

When Giles regained his composure he looked to the street below just in time to see Spike turn the corner. He decided to take the elevator instead.

Exiting the hotel, Giles wondered if he should take another painkiller. No, that would dull his senses and he'd need them if he wanted to find Ethan among the 800,000 Antwerpians.

Ethan ... where to find the bastard? The one thing he likes almost as much as spreading random destruction is leaving his sperm all over the place. Red light district? Not his style, no, he'll happily spend the equivalent of the budget of a small African nation to get a girl drunk enough to be his sperm receptacle for the night, but he won't actually pay for sex. So the city centre it is. But where in the city centre? Not the clubs, no, he may have an opinion of himself, the size of the very same small African nation but he knows that no girl will look at him twice with guys, half his age around. The trendy bars then, this was a student town, there'd be plenty of young girls in the trendy bars.

Giles had high hopes that he might find Ethan. After all, how many trendy bars could there be in a city this size?

Three hours and 28 trendy bars later, his hopes were quite a bit less. But to compensate, at least the mind numbing pain in his back had returned.  
The grand market was full of people. It would be easy to walk right past Ethan and not see him. Keep checking the bars, Giles told himself. At the other end of the market were another two bars, 'Engel' and 'Bengel' they were called. 'Engel' translated to 'Angel', Giles knew. He had a bit of a chuckle at that. He moved aside to let a group of people, dressed in the painted labcoats that were customary for students to wear in these parts, out of the pub. The last guy turned around and shouted something.

Giles saw the two girls at the bar, both also in labcoats, he was shouting at. One was in no condition to continue the pub-crawl as she had fallen asleep with her head on the bar. Her friend grabbed the arm of an older man to demonstrate why she was staying.

Giles quickly turned away to hide his face. The older man ... Moving away from the pub he pulled out his cellphone and after some cursing at the infernal gizmo, he called Spike.

---

A whole horde of sensations stampeded across her from out of the void. But the one sensation that towered above all of them was nausea and ... a tremendous ache in her chest. She had felt like this before. When the master .  
No time to dwell on the past, slayer, she told herself. There was no one in the room with her. The room itself looked like a hospital room, except that there were no windows. A whole batch of machines made all kinds of bleeps. She tried to get up, but as soon as she did, a wave of dizziness slammed her back down. Her vision became blurred. It was only now that she noticed the IV drips in both her arms. The letters on the pouches refused to sit still when she tried to read them but she did see that one bag was hooked up to a dripcounter. This must be the sedative. She reached over to the needle of that one and completely missed. Her vision had gotten so bad it was basically 2D right now. She closed her eyes and felt along her arm until she found the needle. That too wasn't easy since her touch was also numbed. It was as if her fingers were covered in cotton. She pulled out the needle and was about to slump back when she thought of something ... the next nurse or guard or doctor who came in here would simply replace the drip. Buffy stuck the needle back in, just under the skin, well, she assumed it was just under the skin, she could barely feel it going in. She pressed on but before she finished, a veil settled over her eyes. She just gave the needle a little shove. It felt like the end had come out again. Hopefully, there wasn't too much blood. Hopefully there ... but the rest got lost when the void punished her for her bout of activity and swallowed her again.

---

Spike looked up and down the street ... no one about. He jumped and grabbed the windowsill of the second floor. He carefully pulled himself up and saw an old man and a glazy-eyed woman going at it. Wrong old man. The next room was empty. He had to hurry, some people had just entered the street. The next window offered one of the most horrific sights the century old vampire had ever seen: Ethan in a state of partial undress. Spike lowered himself and then catapulted himself headfirst through the window. The girl let out a short scream and was out of the room before Spike could tell her to do just that. Ethan also tried to run, but that's not so easy with his pants on his ankles. Spike picked him up and threw him on the bed, flinching as the chip jabbed him.

Ethan looked about with a terrified look on his face. A weapon ... anything ... AHA! But his elation was short lived, after all, vampires were not known for their fear of ribbed condoms.

Spike, for his part, had a bit of a problem as well, how DO you torture someone with a chip in your head? Just scare him into talking. He vamped out and drew closer to Ethan, growling a bit.

Ethan cowered up against the headboard but he couldn't help but notice that he was still alive and mostly unmolested. Could the stories about Spike ... He started to grin.

"You know, heard the funniest story 'bout you. You don't mind if you do my pants up do you? Ah, that's better. Word has it ..." he got up, defiantly marched up to Spike "you can't hurt people."

Spike's answer was to draw his head back and head-butt Ethan right on the nose. He instantly recoiled. The pain ripped through his skull and down his spine. He let go of his head, which, much to his surprise, didn't explode. Ethan was still in a heap on the floor, a nice little bloodstain forming on his chest. Spike kneeled next to him "You were saying?".

Ethan wiped the blood from his face and said, "I'm not telling you one single word."

Spike cocked his head "I was hoping you'd say that." This was going to hurt like hell. Come on, Spike, switch off you brain and get to it. He gently placed his hands on the sides of Ethan's head and put his thumbs on the eyes.

Ethan grabbed his arms but came up quite a bit short in his attempt to dislodge the vampire.

Spike cleared his mind as much as possible and started to press down. Instantly pain shot through his brain. He threw his head back and screamed. For a moment he let go, but then he saw Buffy, chained to a wall (and not in a good way). Bleeding, hurt, barely alive. No, this pain was nothing compared to hers. He pressed down again. The chip attacked. A second or two, he managed to ignore it. Then he screamed again, arms shaking. Soon his whole body shook. He clenched his jaw shut. Incoherent sounds still escaped his throat. Froth appeared at his mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut. Every single part of him screamed to stop. Then, somewhere through the mist of pain, he heard Ethan scream "OK!"

The pain stopped.

He let go.

When he finally managed to summon the strength, he peered up at Ethan "Speak."

"Remember the bar you chased me through?"

Spike nodded once.

"We went to the right ... go to the left ... into the storage room ... there's a single white brick in the back wall ... press it ... it's a back door ... that's where you'll find Buffy."

Spike instantly jumped out the window. He didn't waste time threatening Ethan. They both knew what would happen if this wasn't the truth. Ethan was perfectly happy escaping with just some blurred eyesight.

---

Feeling returned, much faster this time. Gone was the fuzzy feeling she had before. All her senses worked as they should, painfully so. The bleeps from the monitors were deafening, the light stung her eyes, everything felt coarse. But once again, the two front runners were the nausea and the god-awful pain in her chest. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her stomach instantly attempted an escape. She tried to vomit, but her stomach was empty. The dry heaving continued, adding even more pain to her chest area. When it finally ended, she found herself in a heap on the floor. Whatever drug they had used on her must have been really something ... to knock out a slayer like this. Suddenly, all she could think off was 'WATER!' But, except for the bed and the equipment, the room was completely empty.  
Buffy carefully rose to her feet. Her stomach made a feeble attempt at rebellion again. She clutched her belly, fought the sensation. Approaching the door she could hear some voices on the other side. There was no window in the door, there wasn't even a keyhole to peer through. She'd have to act fast. She put her hand on the handle and concentrated on her breathing for a moment. Then she yanked open the door. Grabbing the first guard, she used him to gain altitude and kick the second guy right in the chin. Before this one hit the floor she had already slammed the first guy's head into the wall. She collapsed. God, she was exhausted. She remained on the floor for a minute until her nose picked up on something. She snapped her head around and saw an open bottle of water lying on the floor. The water disappeared down her throat in no time flat. She still felt like her mouth was one big cotton field but the water revived her like it was one of Willow's potions.

Where was she? The walls of the corridor were all blue tiles but the ceiling showed the ageing masonry of the catacombs. So, she was underground. There were 3 other rooms here, in what a plaque declared to be 'Holding area 2'. A quick check revealed them to hold nothing but unmade beds and the exact same equipment, only neatly arranged along the back wall. Her room had the number 2.1 on it. At both ends of the corridor, there were arrows: holding area one, three and four, armoury, OR one to four, mess ... morgue ... now, if only there had been one labelled 'exit'. But the exit would have to wait. Her recollection of the OR might be blurry, but she distinctly remembered seeing Karen in the next room. Seeing as she had been in room 2.1, she theorised that Karen would be in room 1.1, so that's the way to go.

Buffy quietly made her way through one corridor after another, occasionally checking doors ... one of the rooms might hold her clothes, cause, this gown was SO not her. Her clothes remained M.I.A. but she did find a room that was partially collapsed. Apparently there had been an effort to clear it of rubble since there were a couple of shovels here. It wasn't much, but at least she now had something that resembled a weapon. Which was just as well as round the next corner, she found a guard. He never had a chance. Buffy stepped over the unconscious body (or dead ... somehow she just couldn't bring herself to care either way). This was holing area 1 and if these guys were as anal as they had seemed so far, then Karen would be in room 1.1.  
She peered into the room and sure enough, there was Karen.  
Hang on ... Karen's hair is not that long. She rushed over to the bed. What shocked her more, she didn't know, this girl's condition or the fact that she was there. The person in the bed has so pail, her individual veins were visible through her skin, her closed eyes lay sunken and dead in her skull. Or maybe it just looked that way because all the fat had gone from her face. Her breathing barely moved the sheet. One of the monitors told the story of a weak and irregular heartbeat. If Buffy hadn't known her, she'd never have guessed that this was a slayer, Faith the Vampire slayer to be exact.

---

It had all been like Ethan had said. Storage room, white brick, secret door, the waiters had been annoying, but they hadn't followed him into the pitch-black corridor. There was no light here whatsoever. Even vampire eyes didn't work in these kinds of conditions. He turned another corner, feeling along the fungus-covered bricks. No guards, no traps, just long winding corridors. Then he noticed a speck of light, reflected of a wet cobble. Sure enough, when he turned the next corner he saw, in the distance, that the corridor changed, there were green tiles on the walls, the cobbles were covered with concrete and there were light fittings.

He stepped into the light and instantly dove back into the shadows. Two men in labcoats appeared out of a room. They didn't see the vampire eyeing them. He followed them, matching his own steps to theirs, masking the sound. How to find the slayer here? Smell was no help, this place reeked of disinfectant with just a hint of the rotting process that prevailed in these tunnels. The human scents that he did pick up were very faint and on top of that completely mixed. No way to isolate individual smells. He noticed an increase in the breathing of the guy on the left. When that man turned around, the corridor behind him was empty.

"Seeing ghosts?" the other one asked.

"Nah, though I'd heard something."

"Echoes, this place is full of em."

"Yeah."

When they continued on their path, Spike soundlessly dropped from the ceiling. How he'd have loved to rip them to pieces. Hiding was not his thing.

Pretty soon, he managed to duck into a side corridor, Holding Area 4, a plaque called it. It wasn't holding much, just some beds. He continued his search, always checking for footsteps or familiar odours.  
When he turned another corner, the tiles were a different color and a new plaque declared that he had entered Holding Area 3.  
Half way through the corridor, he had to dive into one of the rooms. At the other end, 2 guys in labcoats appears, they were wheeling along a stretcher, a stretcher containing a slayer no less. Now, if it only had been the right slayer.

They entered the first room and re-emerged a few minutes later, the stretcher now slayer-less.

"Shouldn't we wait for the guards," one said.

"Nah, we gave her enough to knock out an elephant she ain't going anywhere," the other replied.

Spike watched them depart, should he grab Karen? Part of him wanted to leave her, but he knew perfectly well that Buffy would insist on coming back for her.

The unconscious body over his shoulder hindered him. He'd have to be doubly carefull now.

---

Carrying Faith in her arms slowed her down. And she was dead tired. Faith's breathing was so shallow, she feared that she might die right here and right now. Had she done the right thing in unhooking her from all that equipment? Some of it might have been there to keep her alive. No, she thought, she HAD done the right thing. Whatever these monsters had been doing to Faith, she couldn't take much more of it.

Then, Buffy got yanked out of her reflections by a siren. Somehow, she was sure this wasn't the sign that lunch had been served. Not much later, a couple of guards appeared in the corridor. Buffy quickly calculated that she had just enough time to set Faith down gently.

Faith safely aside, she exploded into action, almost knocking the lead guard's head clear off. Thank God for adrenaline.

---

Spike had a feeling he'd find his slayer at the source of all those screams of pain. Peering in the next corridor confirmed his theory. Buffy was somewhat worse for wear, but still she moved gracefully. Taking out one guard after another in a strict minimum of time. As she slammed another man's face into the wall, Spike wondered if there was anything on this planet as beautiful as this slayer, HIS slayer, in action. But, strong as she might be, there were just to many of them. To many of these guards who had the annoying habit of being oh so very human. He couldn't lift a finger to help his slayer. Well, maybe he could confuse them a bit. He unceremoniously dumped Karen in the nearest corner and threw himself at the nearest guard.

When this guy saw whom, or rather what had just knocked him over, he bolted ... straight into a foot, courtesy of Buffy.

This might just work out, Spike thought.

Then a group of guards carrying tasers put a dampner on Spike's optimism.

Spike! She saw who had been confusing the guards. Her Spike, she wanted to rush over there, go hide in his powerful arms, under his coat, let him fight the demons. Only, she reminder herself, these were no demons, not of the soulless kind anyway. So, the cuddling and the warm fuzzy feelings would have to wait.

She took out one of the taser carriers, then used his taser on the next. Spike managed to catch some darts aimed at Buffy and was now twitching on the floor like pissed off shark on the dry. When he could focus again, he saw the last three of the bastards taking aim. He tried to get up but his muscles were still too whacked to obey.

Buffy turned to face the trio of tasers aimed at her. Shit, out of luck.

Suddenly, two of the guards got their heads rammed into each other. The remaining guy tried to shoot at the new attacker. A massive uppercut sent him flying past Spike into a wall. Karen stood over her victims breathing heavily, murderous intent in her eyes. In one hand, she held a stake.

Buffy wondered where she had gotten it and why she had wasted valuable seconds getting it. She chalked it up to inexperience. "Well done," She said to Karen, but when she reached for the stake, Karen shoved her aside. With a scream Karen attacked Spike. He barely managed to shift left. The stake penetrated his chest. For a split second he thought that this was it but he had moved just enough. The piece of wood was sticking out of the right side of his chest.

Karen stood there, looking bewildered, wondering what had gone wrong when Buffy caught her in a full nelson.

"What are you doing!" Buffy screamed.

Karen thrashed about wildly, screaming "Let me go!"

Buffy managed the put some distance between them and Spike. She released the young slayer.

Karen immediately threw herself at Spike again.

Buffy saw no other option and drove her fist into Karen's face. They must have done something to her, must have told her things. "Karen," she tried "whatever they told you, it isn't true. They're the bad guys, we're the good guys."

Karen dislodged her stares from Spike and looked at Buffy "I KNOW that! They TRIED to tell me things. I DIDN'T listen! I'm the slayer for God's sake!"

Yes, Buffy, she told herself, she isn't just some random little girl, You should have know slayers aren't beaten that easily. But then, why ...

Karen continued "Don't you see! That ..." she made a gesture in Spike's direction "THING ... it's a monster, a soulless evil monster!"

"No, Karen, ... he's different, he's got ... he is ... it's Spike."

"It's a vampire, they kill, that's all they do! And he will kill just like those fiends who killed my parents!" Realising what she just said, Karen gasped for breath. Her legs gave way and she curled up in a bundle, crying, sobbing.

Buffy now understood why Karen never talked about her parents, why she avoided the subject. She had been all grown up, ready to face the world when her mother died. And mom had died because of something she couldn't fight. And in a way that had helped, in the end. But this ... Karen ... so young ... BOTH her parents killed by the things she was supposed to fight, by things she failed to stop. She failed. Buffy searched her mind for something, anything she could say, she could tell Karen that would make it all better. But she came up blank, probably, she thought, because there were no easy answers to this one. First things first, she turned to Spike "Can you get us out?"

Spike, clutching his chest where the stake had been, just nodded.

"Grab Faith" Buffy just said.

Karen didn't offer any resistance, she just let herself be guided out of the catacombs by Buffy. Nearly catatonic by the time the got to the surface.

---

Buffy sat at the big round table. Apparently Anya's magic shop annex coffeebar scheme hadn't worked. She stared off into the distance. Willow was nearby, she knew, being there in case she felt like talking and quietly minding her own business when she didn't.  
Buffy felt off. Spike was off too, they hadn't had sex once since the whole thing happened. Giles looked a lot older then he did just two weeks ago. The whole thing was just one big mess.

She saw Giles come in from the back room, or rather, she felt him come in as she couldn't summon the strength to look in his direction.

Giles sagged into a chair some distance away from Buffy. He did some staring of his own before speaking up.

"Just got of the phone"

"Council?" Buffy said, still not looking at Giles.

"Yes. They checked out the facility in Antwerp."

"Empty?" Buffy asked, already knowing the answer.

"Abandoned in a hurry so it seems."

"Figures."

"They did find some data, quite a bit actually."

Buffy finally looked at her watcher "So, what the FUCK did they do to me?" she bit at him. Steady slayer, she thought, not Giles's fault.

"Their leader, a watcher called Thomas Spencer, had this idea that he could build an assembly line of slayers. He was planning on flatlining troublesome slayers over and over again and training the good little slayers to be his army."

This was no surprise to her, having had time to reflect on things, she had more or less come to this conclusion on her own.  
"And where is this army of slayers now? They must have killed Faith a dozen times over."

"That's just the thing. There's only one new slayer we know of, a Swedish girl called Lina. Looks like she was called round about the time they killed you and Karen. I ... I think a new slayer is only called when the most recent one dies."

Her face developed a painful grimace, Faith's death ... deaths, plural, had been for nothing? As if they would have had meaning otherwise, she quickly corrected herself. "How's Faith doing?"

"Better," Giles nodded "she's in a watcher's hospital in Sheffield ... I hear she punched a doctor the other day."

Buffy smiled, that's our Faith. "And Karen?"

"Well, that's the thing you see."

No, Buffy didn't see.

"She's not doing so well, refusing help, ignoring her watchers ... The council suggested that ... I ... might"

Buffy closed her eyes, another blow. "You're leaving?"

Giles nodded "A small retreat in the Scottish Highlands ... They think I might be able to get through to her"  
He took of his glasses for an utterly unneeded cleaning "If it's ok with you."

"I have a choice?"

Giles put his glasses back and look Buffy straight in the eyes. "Of course, Buffy, you are the most important person in my life. You'll always come first."

"No," Buffy decided, but seeing Giles's hurt expression she added, "I mean yes, I know you'll always be there for me, but no, You don't need to stay here. Go help her, she needs you more right now. Besides there's enough Giles to go around."

Giles gave a little smile "Are you absolutely sure?"

"No, I'm a girl, remember, girls are never sure of anything," Buffy said eliciting another smile from Giles. "Besides, I've still got my friends," she added, looking at Willow.

Willow placed her hand on Buffies and squeezed it a little.

"Good, I'll tell them that I'm coming." After a moment he asked, more to keep the conversation going then out of genuine concern "How's Spike doing?"

"Spike?" Buffy said stretching her arms a bit "Spike'll be fine."

---

Spike'll be fine? No, Spike won't be fine. In fact, Spike's doing pretty lousy right now.

---

Spike stood in an ally partially leaning against a wall, trying to overcome the dizziness. He looked at the purse at his feet ... and to the body next to it ... and to the two punctures in the neck. Behind him, he could hear the frightened breaths of a woman. His minds pieced together the fragments. He'd been minding his own business when he heard a scream. He hadn't thought about it, scream equal demon, demon equal kill. So, he attacked. He hadn't bothered to check what kind of demon it was. He had fought it and he had injured it and blood had flown. And without thinking ... he didn't THINK about it! ... Without thinking he found himself biting and feeding. A few good mouthfuls and then he had realised or smelled or tasted it ... human blood.  
Human blood! Fresh, warm, straight from the source human blood! More! The demon inside him had screamed, and he had taken more, and more, and more. He heard the heart fluttering. Did he stop in time? In time for what?  
Think Spike! The purse, the woman, it had been a simply hold-up. Now it was anything but simple.  
He reached down and grabbed the purse. His vampiric face just wouldn't go away!

"Take it and go." he stammered, keeping his face away from her.

She didn't move.

"GO!" he screamed, snapping his head around.

Upon seeing the hideous face, she gulped audibly. She ran past Spike, snatching the purse in the process.

Spike pressed his cheek against the cold brick wall, trying to get rid of the warmth that was spreading through his system. The typical heath a vampire experienced after feeding. After feeding of a human ... after draining a HUMAN.  
He slammed his fist into the wall ... why didn't the chip act up? No searing pain, no mind-numbing headache, not even a tiny little stab! Good God! It should have acted! It should have!  
The mugger still lay at his feet. The scent of the blood was thick in the air. Spike started to yearn for it again. The heart was still beating, there was still more blood there. More of the delightful red liquid presented itself to him. It would be so easy to just ... reach down ... and ... No! It's just a mugger.  
No!  
No one will ever know.  
NO! Enough! Spike picked up the man and carried him to the main street, all the while trying to ignore the blood. He dumped the mugger in plain view and took off.

Rain began to fall, not much, barely a drizzle. Good, Spike thought, it'll cool me down. Wash away the blood and the bloodlust. Give me time to think straight.

But the rain proved to be less of an ally then he thought. Humans hid from the rain. The handful that stayed out would be so easy to grab, to drag into the shadows, to drain. He clutched his head, beat on his skull "Why. Doesn't. It. WORK"  
He let out an animalistic scream. To the crypt! His last bit of humanity cried out. There are no people there!  
And screaming, beating on his own head, he ran to his crypt.  
Hide Spike! Hide! 


End file.
